K-Pop Obession: 2NE1's Falling in Love

It's sweltering hot out! So enjoy some ice cream and 2NE1's latest Reggae influenced single, "Falling in Love" awesome!

K Pop Obsession: After School's First Love

Restarting this blog back up with a good, old fashioned K-Pop obsession! Yay! Remember After School? Now, I realize looking back at some of my posts, I talk a lot about After School (including sub-unit Orange Caramel), I am After School biased and with good reason! The former leader, Kahi, has "graduated" on to other solo things and has been succeeded by JungAh. The group has remained quiet since the release of their last single, "Flashback" and finally released their comeback single, "First Love." I was shocked by the music video in all the right ways. I didn't think the progression of their comebacks go from drumlines to tap dancing to pole dancing?! Gotta admit, the pole dancing takes the song to a whole new level. That "na na na na na na na nahhhh..." just gets into your brain and stays there. Way to go girls! I know you suffered a lot to pull this off and I'm oh so proud of you!

It's worth a watch:

Plastic Beauty

I haven't posted for the loooooongest time, so I thought, "eh, why not today?!" And why not about this?! In the last 48 hours, the photos of the Miss Korea pageant contestants have been making the rounds and sparking debate about plastic surgery and the definition of beauty. You think, "No way, that has to be the same person. She's just has different hair!" but no, oh no...they are all different women that have fallen into the Korean definition of beauty: wide eyes, narrow nose, and dainty chin. It's true, South Korea has the highest capita per rate of plastic surgery in the world. It is prevelant in society, on dramas and in the media in general. It is not uncommon for girls in senior year of high school to go on a "break" and come back with different looking eyes (more specifically it's the double eyelid/eye widening procedure (double eyelid meaning the fold/crease in the eye)). This is the norm, it's not unusual and it's not necessarily seen as a bad thing.

Let's understand one thing, I am not saying South Korea should be ashamed of themselves, each of our societies have their own problems when it comes to beauty and body image. Doesn't every woman deep down at some point of her life wishes to be more beautiful? Be honest with yourself and realize how we, as women and human beings (sorry guys, you are included too, men in Korea get plastic surgery too), have come to think this way. In South Korea, it is a national asset to be the leading destination for plastic surgery. I want to be able to say, "embrace yourself for who you are" or "everyone is beautiful in your own way" but what does that matter to a person who truly doesn't feel beautiful?

In 2012, the United States alone had 14.6 million cosmetic procedures done, up 5% from the year before! And while South Korea may have the same beauty queen face, we certainly have our own; blonde, skinny, and wide mouthed. Certainly, there is more than a beautiful face to the winner of Miss USA or Miss Korea.

Sources via Jezebel, Plastic Surgery.Org, Soul Touch Up

Solo-Battle: I NEED A CHRISTMAS DATE!!!

Christmas time in the States is something that is synonymous with: Baby Jesus, the commercial shopping frenzy, Santa Claus, and family get togethers. When you've lived your life being "in" the American Christmas season, it's hard to think that Christmas isn't like this everywhere else (I mean, it's not?! Hooooooowww?!)


Simon and Martina of the blog/vlog Eat Your Kimchi, recently brought up this subject of Christmas in South Korea in a recent vlog. In South Korea, Christmas is more subdued and even though there is a small family and religious aspect, the Christmas season (especially Christmas Eve) is mostly focused on romantic couples (even more important than dreaded Valentine's Day!). I mean, according to Simon and Martina, everyone is running around trying to find a date and not be single. So when I read about this recent event, I just had to laugh!



A group on Facebook started up a massive blind date flash mob event or "Solo-Battle" for all the single people on Christmas Eve. A reported 36,000 users signed up to attend the event held in Yeouido, Seoul, but only 3,500 showed up for the hope of a possible date. Unfortunately, the crowd was almost entirely made up of lonely, single men in their 20's and 30's. ^_^' The women were greatly outnumbered! Women were asked to wear something red and guys to wear something white. There was even a special kind of code you had to know in order to participate, "Are you here to go for a walk? Would you like to go for a walk with me?" Poor guys! The event quickly dispersed when the guys came to realize it was an embarrassing sausage fest... Don't give up guys, just keep trying. Fighting!

Impatient Asian

Saw this many weeks ago on Tosh.O and it was the most hilarious thing ever! Reverse auntie...

Meet Fukacumi of Ukraine

Meet 19-year-old Ukrainian, Anastaysia Shpagina, virally known as the real life Anime girl, Fukacumi. Do you remember American,Dakota Rose? Well, compared to Anastaysia, Dakota is terribly normal! Ever since she was little, this girl has been experimenting with makeup and when you add a liking for Japanese anime, well, you can even achieve that wide eyed doe look as every other anime character. Ms.Anastaysia has even taken on a different name to even sound more Japanese. As to whether she was taken plastic surgery extremes is unknown, but she is considering undergoing surgery to make her eyes wide permanently. Anastaysia takes up to an hour just to complete her eye makeup in the morning!

The young Ukranian woman is currently living in Odessa, Ukraine as a hair dresser. Not only has she been transforming her face, she has taken drastic measures to lose weight. There are many similar visual qualities between Anastaysia and Dakota that I find are very unhealthy and scary. It's one thing to have big eyes, it's another to try and mimic a cartoon. Strangely enough, she's also friends with fellow Ukranian, Valeria Lukyanova, the human Barbie. Meet Fukacumi and get a little tutorial on how you can achieve her extreme look below:

K-Pop Obsession: Gain's Bloom

K-Pop obsession is back after a long hiatus! And it's none other than sexy Gain from Brown Eyed Girls to grab my attention. I have loved Gain ever since I saw her on the Korean reality show, "We Got Married" with Jo Kwon. Gain is cute, sexy and fun loving! She has always done very sexy and controversial roles in her solo and group comeback music video. There was the sexy sex scene in "Abracadabra", drama filled solo "Irreversible", beaten and bruised in "Sixth Sense" and now loosing her virginity in "Bloom?!" This completely shocked me, all of the sudden there's a sex scene! Perfect banning material *heeheehee*

Honestly, it's a little reminiscent of IU's "You and I." Because they share the same producer, I guess it can't be helped. I also didn't care for how white Gain is and how white the whole set was, I miss her dark hair so much! And the dancers freak me out. Eek!

SKIP TO 1:15 TO GET RIGHT TO THE MUSIC VIDEO.

K-Pop Obsession: Orange Caramel's Lipstick

Been a while since my last obsession post so to kick it back up, it's Orange Caramel's "Lipstick". Usually this group is a bit too cutesy for me, but I love love LOVE the concept for this video; which is ping pong! Yay! Hilarious ping pong! Can I say I've seen those crazy neon yellow teddy bear shoes on a customer recently? They seem to fit right in with this video. And it's also hard to believe, but these girls are a subunit from the girl group After School, who just finished promoting their sexy single "Flashback."

PSY on Ellen Degeneres Show!

So this is awesome, I love PSY and I love Ellen Degeneres and here, they are teaching/dancing Gangnam Style on her show! With Britney Spears! PSY says the perfect sentence that totals the Gangnam Style dance to a "T" ---"Dress classy and dance cheesy." Way to go PSY! PSY is his stage name, short for psycho. He actually speaks very good English, even graduated from a university in the US! I'm so proud of PSY, he's a big hit in the US!

K-Pop Obsession: G-Dragon's One of a Kind & That XX

I really wanted to feature G-Dragon when he released his music video for "One of a Kind" but I was busy and lost track of time. Before I knew it, he had released his first single and music video for "That XX"!!! Ahhh! So this week's feature is going to be the two release singles off his new comeback album One of a Kind.

What I need to say is, these singles are very G-Dragon yet very different from one another. In one single, he's very quarky, odd and off beat with fast beats and rap. Then in the next, he's smooth, dramatic and melodic. Both I loved, but I have to say I probably like "One of a Kind" just a little bit better-he's just so charismatic and the beat so infectious I can't help it! The single, "That XX" is rated 19+ in Korea because of the used of the Korean word "bastard" so that's why it's annoyingly bleeped in the music video.

Watch "One of Kind" for fast rapping, stern but sexy dancers hip thrusting in pilot outfits, an earworm autotuned "Helloooooooooooh", and G-Dragon's ugly yellow corn rows (yup that's G-Dragon's kinda style this time).


Watch "That XX" for good/evil G-Dragon, beautiful imagery, and a cameo by a member of new rookie girl group mentored by G-Dragon himself.

Kong Suni the Farting Doll

The fart sound translation is "Bbong Bbong"

Meet Kong Suni, a very popular Korean play doll that farts. Yes, farts! She eats cereal and when you push her stomach she farts! It's even sold with a flushable toilet! Cute poop, cute poop! Poop is cute in Korea. The thing is, this doll doesn't look Korean she's actually very European or American looking...do dolls around the world look like white Europeans?! Check out the "cute" commercial below (By the way, I find most dolls to look very creepy. Especially the ones with the eyes that close when you lay them down. Eek!).

Pokemon Tim Burton Style

I saw this and I was like WOW! WOW! WOW! Tim Burton style is so whimsical yet dark and having it applied to Pokemon is just amazing. Check out these illustrations by Vaughn Pinpin (aka hatboy) via his Tumblr page.

The Debut: EvoL

Been a long time since my last post. Mianhamnida! I really wanted to highlight a new rookie girl group called Evol. This group has impressed me, a lot of people are unfairly comparing them to 2NE1, which is a little unfair. I'm the first to admit I am a Blackjack (2NE1 fan) and just adore the new girl group! 2NE1 definately has taken over the market of "tough/strong girl group" and it's going to be tough competition. I believe EvoL has the potential to be serious competition! The groups' label Stardom Entertainment, who are labelmates with boy group Block B. EvoL is pronounced "evil" and is also LOVE (EVOL) spelled backwards! It's not to be mixed up with the Sonic Youth rock album.

The group is comprised of five group members: Leader SAY, Jucy, Yull, Hayana, and J-Da. Leader Say has a very strong and intimidating looking face that I feel really suits the group. The group doesn't follow the typical "cutsey" Korean girl group.

There debut mini "Let it Explode!" is a great example of there style and voices. And their debut music video for "We Are A Bit Different" was the bomb! I will learn this dance! So much fun!

Go for the Gold!

This month is all about the Olympics, so when I saw this I nearly cried from laughing. Thanks Justin for sharing! He got the GOLD! LOL.

Summer of Bubble Pop

Hyuna's single "Bubble Pop" was released last summer, since then I have always associate summer with bubble bubble pop pop! It's also why I bought red heels and dance around my house...Check out the sexy music video now! Dubstep breakdown around 2:30, sweet....

Ace Power Exercise Machine!

I'm sure most of you've seen some ridiculous infomercials for things like the Steak Knives, the FlexBow and Shake Weight, but this is much MUCH better. Check out this Korean infomercial for an exercise machine called "Ace Power." So embarrassingly good.

The Comeback: Brown Eyed Girl's The Original

As some of you might know, I am a huge fan of Brown Eyed Girl's (BEG). Luckily, they're having a little mini comeback this summer with their newest album, "The Original." They've already released the music video for "One Summer Night" and the vocals are just amazing. I love you BEG, keep shining!

A.W.W. [ SOJU ]

pronounced: show-joo

Defined by Wikipedia:

1. A distilled beverage native to Korea. Its taste is comparable to vodka, though often slightly sweeter due to sugars added in the manufacturing process. 2. Though it is traditionally made from rice, most modern producers of soju use supplements or even replace rice with other starches, such as potatoes, wheat, barley, sweet potatoes, or tapioca.



Examples:

Aiish! I drank too much soju last night.

Let's go eat some samgypsaul and soju tonight!

Alcohol equivalent to vodka or sake (more closely to sake because it is made out of rice). Soju literally translates to "burned liquor." Even though there is a population of Koreans here in MN, I haven't been able to to find actual soju...there is a Korean grocery store I have yet to go to, they might have something there.

K Pop Obession: PSY's Gangnam Style

Tons of new music suddenly coming out this week! BEG's "One Summer Night", BAP's "No Mercy", and Jang Wooyoung's solo "Sexy Lady" were all released within a week of each other! Crazy! Not to mention my favorite K-Pop girl group 2NE1's "I Love You." So today I decided to go with something I would never ever normally listen to.

PSY from YG has finally made a comeback with "Gangnam Style." Hilariously tacky good! Feeling a bit down from the awful weather? Listen to Gangnam Style! I really don't know where to begin with this music video, every part is my favorite part! It's just so funny and random. It even has sexy Hyuna from 4Minute in it! You have to watch it to believe! "Heeeeeeeyyyyy sexy laaaaadddy!"

Gangnam is 1 of 25 districts that make up Seoul, it is one of the most affluent areas of the city.

Visual Concept: ♥♥♥♥.5/5 Video Concept: ♥♥♥♥/5 Singing Talent: ♥♥♥♥/5 Music/Sound: ♥♥♥♥/5 Dancing: ♥♥♥♥.5/5 English Usage: ♥♥♥♥/5

Overall Rating: ♥♥♥♥/5

Learning Korean FAIL

So my brother actually found this and shared it with me. It is a very unfortunate mis-pronunciation and is probably a big reason why schools in Korea always want a native speaker to teach English (speaking). Maximum laughs though!